


Bhadrakali

by Eldritch



Category: Black Butler
Genre: Community: springkink, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-06-06
Updated: 2008-06-06
Packaged: 2017-10-02 15:48:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eldritch/pseuds/Eldritch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the Springkink prompt "closeness - a hand blessed by the gods." Agni, his goddess, and his god.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bhadrakali

His nights, for the most part, belonged to her. She came to him all but silently, only the soft jingle of her golden anklets giving her approach away.

"My lady," Agni whispered, preparing to prostate himself before her.

Her laughter was a primal exaltation as she lifted him to his feet. "My child," she said, "oh, my child."

\---

In the harsh heat of the day, the light reflecting off of Soma's brilliant adornments made him difficult to stare at directly. Even when he reclined in the shade of one of the garden's many pavilions, as he did now, Agni was struck by his resemblance to the sun. Regally resting upon a nest of brightly-patterned pillows with a finely-patterned china tea cup in his hands, Soma looked every inch the prince he was.

A moment later, however, he ruined the illusion by setting the cup down with a clatter upon its tray. "I'm tired, Agni," he said, punctuating his words with a huge yawn.

Agni bowed his head. "Do you wish to rest, my prince?"

"Mm, I guess so. Why not?" A mischievous smile spread across his face, making him look even younger than he already was. "I want a better pillow, though."

"A... pillow, my prince?" Agni glanced at the pile already inside the pavilion, perched upon airy silks and the skin of a tiger. "But--"

Soma laughed. "Come here, Agni." He extended one elegant hand, and with another bow, Agni did as he was bid. "Now sit down. No, not there. Right here."

Slightly confused, Agni allowed himself to be poked and prodded, shifting his legs until he found a position that Soma deemed acceptable. With that taken care of, Soma gave another great yawn and proceeded to pillow his head in Agni's lap.

"My prince--" Agni began, feeling his face heat. He couldn't claim the position was unfamiliar to him, though it brought to mind nothing but his-- _Arshad_'s-- history of indecencies. Nothing he was willing to associate with the beautiful, selfish, _magnificent_ boy resting on him now.

"Shhh," Soma admonished. "I'm trying to sleep."

And so Agni said nothing.

\---

Her breath smelled like the incense and slowly-rotting flowers left upon her altar. She took his hand, for once unbandaged and bare, between two of her own. Another cupped his chin to tilt his head up so that she could better look into his face.

Agni tried not to stare too long into her eyes. There was a dizzying blackness there, a swirling power that could drive even the stoutest of men mad. Someone like himself would stand no chance at all.

\---

"Do you know why I named you Agni?" Soma murmured sleepily against Agni's thigh.

Agni mutely shook his head, not trusting his own voice, before he remembered that his master would not be able to see the action. "I do not," he said instead.

"Fire is beautiful, isn't it? But if it burns too brightly, it'll eat through everything in its path." Soma was staring up at him now, an unreadable expression on his young face. "That's what you looked like when I first saw you. You were lovely, but you'd consumed everything around you, and were in danger of being extinguished."

There was more truth in Soma's words than he could even begin to realize, Agni reflected. His chest tightened when he remembered the stained and scuffed wood of the public execution grounds, his unwashed hair hanging in his face as he prepared for his death.

He was startled out of his reverie by a gentle tug on his beaded strand of hair, his only physical reminder of his past life.

"And I thought that it would be a shame not to rekindle that fire. So, you're Agni, now," Soma continued, letting go of Agni's hair. A broad, if slightly sleepy grin illuminated his face. "And you're _my_ fire."

"As you wish, my prince," Agni said, smiling down at his god.

\---

The skulls on her necklace clacked against each other as she tugged him into her husband's dance. It was creation, it was destruction. It was eternity and the inner workings of life.

Agni smiled.


End file.
